new video card for 24" LCD?

[jimrev]

I recently got an LG L246WP (24" LCD panel) and needed to upgrade my old video card from a 6600GT. I don't play games at all but do video stuff (editing, authoring, etc), web browsing, email and usually have them all running at once (rabid multi-tasker).

I was advised (on another forum) that an 8600GT would be more than sufficient. Well, it isn't. It installed fine and will run the L246WP (which looks fine at 1680x1050) but things are not right with the system. Something seems to be sapping the processor or system memory because everything is pretty "laggy". If I have several browser tabs open as well as other programs running, things get very slow: delays in adjusting windows (closing, maximizing), mouse gets momentarily stuck in place, software like video editor runs slowly, DVD burning with NERO takes about 4X the time it should.

I updated all the drivers for the system including the BIOS and chipset drivers but nothing really changed.

Do I need a more powerful video card? Will a 9600GT or 8800GS be sufficient? Is my PSU to blame?

E6400 2.13GHz (usually overclocked to 2.8 but reduced to standard for now)
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
4GB OCZ PC-800 RAM
320GB SATA Seagate HD
250GB SATA WD HD
Thermaltake 430W PSU (1 +12V 18A max)

 

[redlinez33]

I doubt a video card causes those problems unless its defective. A 8600GT should be fast enough for anything you mentioned your doing. Why didnt the 6600GT work? Was it doing the same thing?


What Operating System are you running?


It could be your PSU, it could be other things as well...

 

[jimrev]

the 6600GT was even worse. The system would barely move. I'm running XP.

 

[redlinez33]

was it doing this before you upgraded your monitor? If not what resolution were you running before this?

 

[jimrev]

No, I could run just about anything I wanted simultaneously without any delays at all. I had an LG L1810B LCD running at 1024x768 (if I remember correctly).

 

[redlinez33]

Well if you decide to go get a 9600GT, you probably would want a new PSU as well... So if you decide to go that route to see if it helps the problem, you might as well buy a PSU first to see if it fixes the problem.

 

[redlinez33]

Unless your video stuff is more demanding then I am thinking it is, I just dont see how a non defective video card is doing what you are seeing....

 

[jimrev]

I'm no expert but from what I know and have read, the monitor or video card should not be causing the problems that I'm having. Yet they started when I installed the new monitor (still using the 6600GT). After the problems, I went back to the old monitor and everything went back to normal. I was told I needed to upgrade the video card so installed the 8600GT, reinstalled the monitor and still experienced problems. Granted, they're not as bad as with the old video card, but they're still a bother. The only other thing I changed initially was using the display adapter from LG for the monitor. Maybe using the original Microsoft plug-and-play adapter might be better?

If I can't figure this out soon I think I'm going to go back to the old video card, old monitor, RMA the 8600 and put away the 24" monitor for the time being until I can learn more (or get some brilliant insight).

 

[redlinez33]

run the new monitor at 1024x768 with the new video card, let us know if it fixes the problem or not.......

 

[jimrev]

Okay, I did that and it makes things much better; I ran two media players playing .avi files at the same time along with email and web browser with 6 or 7 tabs open and the videos played smoothly without jerkiness and same with page scrolling and mouse movements. I also ran DVD authoring software and video encoder, both ran pretty slowly. Also burned a 4.4GB DVD with NERO and it took about 22 minutes (should have taken about 7), which is an improvement over earlier, when it took about 30 minutes to burn the same DVD.